Infrastructure WA

Dear stakeholders

It has been an extremely busy four months or so since the establishment of Infrastructure WA (IWA) in late July. The inaugural IWA Board has now met four times, with another Board Meeting taking place on the 13th of this month. In November we undertook a corporate strategy planning session, which will set IWA’s long-term direction.
Among the items for discussion were IWA’s purpose and values, its vision, goals and how we measure success. We also discussed the direction of the development of WA’s first State Infrastructure Strategy (SIS). The outcome will be a corporate strategy, which we expect to make available on our website early in the new year.
IWA staff and Board have been actively engaging with stakeholders over recent months. A series of roundtable meetings have taken place with State Government agencies and Government Trading Enterprises. Myself, Deputy Chair Nicole Lockwood and Acting CEO Lance Glare have also been hosted by many of these agencies at their internal meetings. These face to face sessions are a valuable way of updating stakeholders on IWA’s progress, receiving feedback and developing the baseline for WA’s infrastructure.

Last month Nicole, Lance and a number of other Board members had the pleasure of joining a lunchtime meeting with the Governor of Western Australia, the Honourable Kim Beazley AC, to give an overview of IWA’s progress and hear his perspectives. Also in attendance was Infrastructure Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO, who took time to visit the IWA offices while in WA. Continuing to build strong links with key stakeholders, including Infrastructure Australia, will be crucial to IWA’s progress in 2020. We look forward to hosting Romilly again soon.

The last few weeks have seen Nicole, Lance, myself and a number of IWA staff visiting Broome, Bunbury and Albany for an initial round of Regional Stakeholder Engagement Forums. The visits enabled us to introduce IWA to regional stakeholders, and most importantly, hear their initial views on what IWA and WA’s first SIS should address. What we are hearing is that the development of the SIS is most welcome and well overdue. The forums have been a great success, with almost 150 people in attendance. If you were unable to attend one of these sessions, more are planned for early next year at different locations across WA. The presentations from the forums are now available on our website. We are keen to get feedback from delegates so that we can make next year's engagement sessions even better. A survey has gone out to those who attended, and is available via this link. 

In late November we were pleased to welcome the Premier of Western Australia, the Honourable Premier Mark McGowan MLA to IWA where he met with the Board and IWA staff. As well as formally introducing the Board to the Premier for the first time, I was able to give him an update on IWA’s progress and operations to date.
It was good to hear the Premier’s views on the future direction of infrastructure in the context of the Government’s agenda and how important it will be in driving WA’s future success. This year has been extremely busy for all involved with the establishment of IWA, and 2020 promises more critical developments, in particular the release of a SIS Discussion Paper around the second quarter of the year.  

As well as the development of the SIS Discussion Paper, 2020 promises more ongoing engagement with a raft of stakeholders on various issues affecting WA’s infrastructure, where it needs to get to and how IWA can help to get it there. Myself and the other Board members along with IWA staff are looking forward to continuing to get out and meet as many of you as possible next year, to hear your views and keep the conversation going on infrastructure matters in WA. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries and to keep up to date with the latest IWA news, visit our website regularly.

In the meantime, we would like to thank you for your ongoing support and I wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season.

Kind regards 
John Langoulant AO
Chairperson, Infrastructure WA